CHAPTER 10 – CONCLUSION
Issues in the Statistical Analysis
A detailed summary of all of the variants that have been presented in the preceding chap-
ters that takes every facet of this study into account is impossible. One can only make
informed and qualified generalisations, and try to capture some overarching pattern that
may be found in the variations that occur throughout the sources discussed. Where there
are specific findings that can be inferred form the evidence we must be mindful of distor-
tions that result from the methodology we have constructed for this study. Similarly,
while we may speculate that our findings could reflect overarching trends in the greater
textual corpus, we must avoid the notion that they are valid in any direct sense beyond
the particular texts examined here.
The preceding analysis remains a study of individual representative texts from a selected
range of genres, which, for our present purposes, provides more than enough material for
consideration. However the present study can only nominate some directions for future
research that seem, from this small sampling, to warrant further investigation. A more
comprehensive study of the ancient sources would determine if the conclusions presented
here are tuly born out by the data.
A hazard to be avoided in summarising a study such as this is the application of proscrip-
tive conclusions that attempt to define too narrow a view as to what types of variation
may or may not be expected in a given textual genre. In particular one should be pru-